It’s also comparing controversial “discovery” teaching, traditional rote learning and a balanced approach. It’s considering whether elementary school math should be taught by specialists, as in high school. It could lead to mandatory changes like doubling the amount of math taught in elementary schools to 100 minutes a day.

The 36-member task force includes the usual board staff and teachers, but also students, parents and professors and math experts from across Ontario. Douglas McDougall, associate dean at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, has been at every meeting.

The task force will also ask, among others, a distinguished American mathematician and the CEO of Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office, which conducts provincewide testing, to critique its work.

The initiative that originally drew resistance seems to have become an earnest — and refreshing — effort to raise perennially lagging test scores.

“I think what we’re doing this time that’s different is connecting with critical friends outside of the Ministry (of Education) and outside of the board,” said superintendent of education Clara Howitt. “Another thing we’re doing is considering voices from important partners, including our parents.”

The University of Windsor’s Dr. Shijing Xu, Canada Research Chair in International and Intercultural Reciprocal Learning in Education, is connecting the task force with Chinese students and schools in China, which are very successful on international tests.

“People say, ‘They’re performing well so why aren’t we?'” said Howitt. “We need to critically examine what is happening in China.”

Grade 3 students from Queen Victoria Public School take part in a math lesson on Oct., 29, 2015.Jason Kryk /
Windsor Star

Despite criticism about the amount of time students in China spend studying, “I think there are things we could learn,” she said.

“For them,” said board trustee Jessica Sartori, who initiated the task force, “a lot of it is about culture. School performance is very important. I really want to raise math into our cultural awareness.”

There has been hot debate over controversial discovery learning versus traditional rote learning and whether math specialists should teach in elementary school. Whatever the task force recommends, “we need to be able to ground it to research,” Howitt said. “It’s our collective responsibility to look objectively at what’s being brought forward.”

Howitt anticipates the task force will “push forward on some non-negotiables, where (it) has determined these are some practices that should be happening across the system.”

Requiring 100 minutes of math a day in elementary schools is one example.

When the task force produces its “action steps” in December, it will ask three “critical advisers” to review its work. One is the distinguished Dr. Hyman Bass of the University of Michigan, known for his work in math education.

Bass, now 83, went to Princeton on a scholarship, taught at Columbia University for 37 years, once heading the math department, and has been a visiting professor at leading institutions around the world. He’s a fellow of the top national math, science and education organizations in the U.S. and was awarded the National Medal of Science.

“I was drawn to mathematics by great teaching,” Bass, who wasn’t available for an interview, has written. Listening to some of his university lecturers was like “listening to fine music with all of its beauty, charm and sometimes magical surprise,” he wrote.

Grade 3 students from Queen Victoria Public School take part in a math lesson on October, 29, 2015.Jason Kryk /
Windsor Star

Said Sartori, “It’s going to be really important not only to have math education experts but to have somebody with his credibility who’s going to help us if there’s anything we’re missing, to be able to ask, ‘Do you think we’re on the right track?’

“I wanted to make sure we have a variety of viewpoints,” she said. “I didn’t want everybody coming from the same perspective.”

Rodrigues, a former high school math teacher, is an interesting choice for a board that has dissed testing in the past.

Testing isn’t about being punitive, Rodrigues said. It’s about the myriad information collected, for example, how the same group of students performs from Grade 3 to Grade 9 and their attitudes toward math.

“It’s about making constructive, critical decisions based on that information,” he said.

For example, if students fail the test in Grades 3 and 6, that affects their performance in high school. Catching them early is crucial. There’s also a significant correlation between attitude and performance.

The task force is expected to make its recommendations in April. But it’s expected to continue after that to ensure the recommendations are implemented.

“I’m not looking at one year of improved (test) results,” said Sartori. “Just one year is not going to be good enough. How far can we go? There doesn’t have to be a limit.”

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